Be prepared? I doubt Boy Scouts are prepared for this.

Were you a Boy Scout? I was, back in the 1950s. I served as an Explorer Scoutmaster in Illinois in the 1970s.

Now, if I had a son or daughter at an age to be a Scout, I probably would not let him near a Scout troop, a Scout adult leader or a Scout camp.

Over the past decade, an investigator hired by the Scouting organization, identified 12,254 victims of sexual abuse by 7,819 scout leaders and adults from 1946 to 2017.

That, say critics of the Boy Scouts of America, is just the tip of a massive iceberg of corruption within the organization.

“We are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to abuse innocent children,” says a statement from BSA. ““We believe victims, we support them, we pay for counseling by a provider of their choice, and we encourage them to come forward. It is BSA policy that all incidents of suspected abuse are reported to law enforcement.”

That may be true now, but it was not so in the 1970s in Alton, IL, when I served as an volunteer Explorer leader for the Scouts. Explorers were open to both teenage boys and girls and during a pickup basketball game, a 16-year-old female high school student began rubbing herself sexually against one of the boys.

I made a note to talk to her about it afterwards, and she sat in my car afterwards outside the gym and I asked her if she knew what she was doing and how inappropriate it was.

Instead of answering, she moved over close to me in the car seat, threw her arms around my neck and tried to kiss me passionately while dropping her hand to my lap and start massaging my groin.

I pushed her away and asked her what she thought she was doing.

“I”m doing what are you guys want,” she said with a smile. “If you want it, then let’s do it.”

She tried to kiss me again. I pushed her away again.

She laughed.

“You know you want me,” she said. “The guy who had your job before you did. He liked me doing him. Let’s screw. You will enjoy it.”

I told her to leave the car and go home with her friend. When I asked another Explorer leader about her, he shrugged and said: “It happens. She’s not the only one and I know several who have enjoyed her charms. She’s a good-looking, sweet young thing. Why not enjoy what she offers. It’s one of the perks of the job.”

I was single at that time of my life and I had an active social life with adult women. At the time the encounter with a high school girl occurred, I was in a consensual, intimate relationship between adults. I didn’t have any need or desire to mess with kids.

When I reported what happened to the local Scouting Office, I was told it “would be investigated.” If any investigation was ever launched, I was not contracted. The girl never returned to a post meeting. When I inquired about the outcome of the “investigation,” I was told “other things were more important.”

“Don’t push this,” I was told. “If you do, the girl will probably claim you and she had sex and you would be the one in trouble.”

I quit my volunteer job with Scouting and never had anything to do with them again.

Last year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the largest participant in the Boy Scouts program and representing about 20 percent of all Scout members, cut ties with the Boys Scouts. A group of lawyers claims they have uncovered hundreds of previously unreported cases of sexual abuse.

Scout membership has dropped by more than 26 percent in the past decade.

The Boy Scouts’ past with sexual abuse is no secret to the organization or the public, but in the #MeToo era, a wave of allegations from decades ago are coming to the forefront.

Several states, including New York and New Jersey, are changing their statute-of-limitations laws to allow victims of child sexual abuse an opportunity to seek justice, opening the door to hundreds of potential lawsuits against the Boy Scouts. Last year, The Washington Post reported that the organization had hired lobbyists in several states to push back against potential statute-of-limitations changes.

Michael Pfau, a lawyer who specializes in abuse cases and who has litigated against the Boy Scouts for more than 17 years, said he was representing dozens of victims in New York state, which has just opened a year-long legal window that allows victims of childhood sexual assault to sue long after the state’s original statute of limitations has passed. Pfau and his colleagues have already filed six lawsuits in the state and were preparing more in New Jersey, which opens its own legal window on Dec. 1.

In addition, a December report in the Wall Street Journal that the Boy Scouts were considering filing for bankruptcy, which could give potential victims a limited amount of time to come forward for compensation, prompted lawyers to gather new cases in earnest.

The Boy Scouts would not confirm the bankruptcy reports. But regarding a potential “financial restructuring,” the organization said it was “working with experts and exploring all options available so we can live up to our social and moral responsibility to fairly compensate victims . . . while also ensuring that we carry out our mission to serve youth, families and local communities through our programs.”

In response to the report, a coalition of lawyers known as Abused in Scouting began gathering clients earlier this year by airing television ads across the country.

In a box somewhere in storage, I have a sash with merit badges I earned during my time as a Boy Scout. If I ever find it, I will burn it.

Long-time newspaperman, photographer and videographer who, at age 71, still shoots photos and covers government and courts for a BH Media newspaper, shoots video for TV and documentary use and owns websites that include Blue Ridge Muse and Capitol Hill Blue.